In recent years, the problem of refereeing in armwrestling escalated and began to rise up more and more often. After each tournament there are questions to the referees who served fights. Sometimes judicial errors cost an athlete a gold medal.

More recently, at the Zloty Tour Rustam Babaev faced such a problem. Rustam conceded the gold medal to his opponent, while Rustam’s hand has not been pressed to the pad. In an interview immediately after armpower.net Zloty Tour Rustam gave the following comment:

"A striking example of biased refereeing panel was fixed by the camera during my semifinal match with Rafiq Gunashev. Obviously it is clear that at the start his elbow was not on te pad, and after the command "go" it has continued to go to the center. But the refree was only waiting for my elbow slip (though I am not sure it slipped), but I will not argue, and he gave me a foul. It’s not funny! And this is only one example, which was well fixed by the camera. Actually, it’s not bar level and the refereeing must be appropriate. On the result of the final match on the right hand refereeing influenced tremendously. I encountered for the first time with such a disgusting refereeing. If the person who understands even a little of it, watch the video, then he will understand everything".

On Monday, December 12, Kharkov held Ukrainian Cup, which was attended by Rustam Babayev both as a spectator and a coach. Refereeing did not spare this tournament too, and Rustam again faced with this problem:

"The final category up to 110 kg, Mikhail Rudakov - Evgenii Prudnik. Rudakov won the first final match, and in the superfinal referee didn’t allow him to pull. He had won, but the judge gave a non-existent foul. There is a video where it is clearly visible. Athletes prepare for years for this fight, and the incompetence of referees or personal interest in the victory of another athlete easily negates all the efforts. From this our sport could be not interesting to people", – Rustam says.

Within a short period of time Rustam twice encountered such a problem, in Zloty Tur when he fought, and on the Ukrainian Cup, which fought his friends and students. In both cases, the judicial decisions did not allow competitors to take first place:

"At this level, I more globally faced with this problem. Now, preparing for competitions, I will delve more seriously into the issues of incompetent judging and how to deal with them. This article is the first step to ensure that the referees must begin to think seriously about their decisions. So they begin to be considered with the athletes and respect them as a person. And most importantly – respect them for their hard work".

Below you can see the video of the super final match of Mikhail Rudakov and Rvgenii Prudnik and decide about a fair solution. We do not undertake to judge the decisions, but accept the fact that Rustam claims are well founded and that the athletes deserve the most professional and competent refereeing.